View full sizeStephanie Yao Long/The OregonianThe Rev. Chuck Currie is a Portland minister who created a Facebook page opposing the burning of the Quran.

As political and religious leaders on Thursday pressured a Florida pastor not to burn the Quran, Facebook revoked a Portland minister's posting rights to his page opposing the burning. By the end of the day, the Quran burning was apparently off and the Rev. Chuck Currie was back on Facebook.

Currie's page, "People of Faith Opposed to the Burning of the Quran," had had more than 12,000 visitors who "liked" it -- Facebook's terminology for becoming a fan of a cause -- when he received an e-mail Thursday morning from the social networking giant saying he could no longer use the page.

He had created the page Sunday and had been posting news articles and official statements from religious leaders.

"Burning the holy scriptures of another faith stands in opposition to my own understanding of Christianity," he said.

Around Portland, other religious congregations were also planning displays of solidarity with Muslims.

Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church in Southeast Portland will commission a special delegation of its members to visit Bilal Mosque in Beaverton on Sunday to proclaim "our deep and abiding friendship," said the Rev. Linda C. Stewart-Kalen.

"We consider the burning of the Quran to be a symbolic act that takes us back to Nazi Germany," she said. "And we don't want to be quiet about something that can't be a conscious act of Christian faith."

The Rev. David Zaworski of Waverly Heights United Church of Christ in Southeast Portland plans to read from the first chapter of the Quran during the congregation's 11 a.m. worship service Sunday.

"If someone is going to choose to be filled with hate toward Muslims, then, here, hate us, too," Zaworski said. "If the Quran is something evil, and the places that hold it up are evil, then target us, too.

"It's that same kind of solidarity that moved Danish people to wear gold stars," he said, referring to non-Jewish people responding to the treatment of Jews during World War II.

Zaworski said his small but growing congregation of about 50 has been looking for a way to respond to the idea of burning the Quran. "This is a very small thing, but every now and then, small things matter."

The Rev. Scott Dalgarno, interim pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Northeast Portland, said the church leadership had spent about $600, ordering 100 copies of the Quran in English, which will be available free at Broadway Books, 1714 N.E. Broadway, early next week, one book per customer.

Dalgarno said the decision was not an act of hostility toward Dove World Outreach Center or its pastor, who had acted "out of conscience."

"We decided to do this," Dalgarno said. "As Presbyterians, we value education and individual conscience. We believe people ought to have the chance to read the Quran and decide for themselves whether it should be a guide for their lives."

Currie, ordained in the United Church of Christ, said he wanted to inspire Facebook members to send "respectful notes" to the Florida church. He worried that without anyone to monitor reader responses, the Facebook page itself might add to the angry debate. He said he had deleted two reader posts, one that included an anti-Islamic statement and another trying to incite anger against Dove World Outreach Center, the Gainesville, Fla., congregation that had threatened to burn the Quran.

In his own message to Dove World Outreach Center, he asked them to "prayerfully reconsider" their actions.

But Thursday morning's e-mail from Facebook said Currie had violated the site's Terms of Use.

The Facebook Pages Terms include a provision that the administrator of the page may disclose the types of content he or she will remove from a page and the grounds for which a user may be banned from accessing the page.

"I have not violated these terms in any manner," Currie said Thursday morning. Facebook did not respond to e-mail from Currie or a visit to their headquarters by a supporter or to The Oregonian's phone and e-mail inquiries. But shortly before 7 p.m., Currie said his rights had been restored without explanation.

Pastor Terry Jones' plan to burn the sacred Muslim text had already evoked an international outcry. President Barack Obama, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan and several Christian leaders had urged Jones to reconsider. They said his actions would endanger U.S. soldiers and provide a strong recruitment tool for Islamic extremists. Religious and political leaders from across the Muslim world registered their disapproval.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Jones had decided to cancel plans to burn copies of the Quran because he said the leader of a proposed Muslim community center had agreed not to build it near ground zero in New York. But hours later, after two Muslim leaders contradicted his claim, Jones said he might proceed with the Quran burning after all.

Currie's Facebook page had almost 16,000 "likes" by 7 p.m. Thursday. He said his page has been "a powerful witness to diversity." Christians, Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, Hindus and Buddhists have all posted responses.

A Southern Baptist sent Currie an e-mail. "He said he didn't agree with me or the United Church of Christ on a lot of issues, but this was an area where we could find common ground," Currie said.

"This is not our common understanding of the divine. All of us believe, out of our own faith traditions, that this is not what the almighty calls us to be. Religious traditions are, at their core and center, traditions of peace, reconciliation and understanding. This congregation in Florida is engaged in theological malpractice."

Earlier in the day, Currie had asked his mother-in-law, Alice Smith, an attorney who lives in Palo Alto, to contact Facebook headquarters.

Smith said she tried calling Facebook first but only got a recording.

"They no longer take phone calls," she said. "It was just impossible to communicate." So she drove 2 miles from her home to Facebook corporate headquarters and spoke to "an extremely nice woman" at the front desk. Smith identified herself as an attorney and mother-in-law of Currie and asked why his rights had been revoked.

The receptionist gave Smith a 3-by-5-inch form and encouraged her to write a message that would be forwarded to a Facebook representative who would respond within three working days. Smith said she left, frustrated she couldn't speak face to face with anyone who could tell her why her son-in-law had lost his rights.